Ice-cold Torontonian motorik pop
Who he?
Gabe Knox is an electronic musician from Toronto, Canada. But he’s no ordinary electronic musician from Toronto, Canada. He recently pinged on our radar thanks to the magic ears of Polytechnic Youth, which is a fine endorsement in our book. His track ‘Look & Learn’ was a proper standout on the Crouch End label’s recent-ish, excellent ‘Popcorn Lung’ compilation.
Why Gabe Knox?
Knox’s work is prime Polytechnic Youth, a sound that label boss Dom Martin describes as “icy cool blasts of minimal synth, motorik grooves, melodic pop via passing nods to early Mute and Sky Records”. Says Knox: “I wanted to make music that had the drive shaft of Neu!, the punishing low end of King Tubby, the interleaved melodic lines of Vince Clarke, the melancholic, otherworldly whimsy of Raymond Scott and Delia Derbyshire, the hypnotic drone of Spacemen 3, and the analogue intimacy of Le Car.” Never has one artist sounded more appealing, right?
Tell us more…
We like Gabe Knox, he tells a good tale. A self-professed “moderate success as a local musician and club DJ”, a few years back Knox made a decision. “Instead of trying to unsuccessfully make music you think other people will like,” he told himself, “why don’t you make something that you’d actually want to listen to for once?”. The result was three digital EPs, ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’, which PY cherry picked and released on vinyl cunningly entitled, wait for it… ‘ABC’. “I wanted to bring the euphoria and hypnosis of dance music to the rock kids, and the energy and excitement of rock music to the dance kids,” says Knox adding further appeal. ‘ABC’ is on its second limited edition pressing, so best hurry.
‘ABC’ is out on Polytechnic Youth
